


Out of the Woods

by softami



Category: Life Is Strange (Video Game)
Genre: Memory Loss, More characters to be added, Other, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Sacrifice Maxine "Max" Caulfield
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-18
Updated: 2019-04-04
Packaged: 2019-11-23 20:01:02
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,987
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18156386
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/softami/pseuds/softami
Summary: Nobody knows her origins. She just appeared one day, soaked in rain and mud as she walked through sticks, her shoes sloshing in the rainwater. Grass stuck to her, wet clothing forming her frail figure.Blood ran from her nose.Dripped down her face.And they all wondered, "What the hell is this?"And to be honest, she doesn't even know that herself.//Max getting to know Chloe and Rachel all over again.





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> forgib me idk what i'm doing  
> i hope you enjoy, tho :)

It was a warm day, rain falling from the sky. Thunder yelled from above as lightning flashed, making her wince. She gripped at her clothing a little harder, squeezing water from her gray hoodie. She looked around at her surroundings, which had stayed the same for however long she walked today. Trees and branches along with mud. Disgusting.

She trudged through the rocks and sticks that scarred her legs, mud sticking to her jeans as she made her way out of the forest. She could see a light in the distance, maybe from a lighthouse.

She didn't know where she was going, or where she came from. She looked down and saw little spots of red slowly expanding on her pink shirt. She reached up to touch her nose, spreading the blood even more. She furrowed her brows and wiped the blood. It smeared on half of her face.

"It's fine. Just blood." She told herself, heading towards the broken lighthouse. "I wonder..." She drifted off, getting drowsier as time went on, as she climbed the steep hill in which the lighthouse was perched on. She panted as she finally got to the top, and fell onto her knees.

By now the blood had been pouring out of her nose like a waterfall, staining her skin a reddish-brown color.

And she was  _tired,_ to say the least.

The rain was easing up when she slumped against the lighthouse wall, still clutching at her clothes, shivering. She had one last good look at the stump next to the lighthouse, behind the bench, 

**Chloe and Rachel**

**BFFS forever**

She tried to smile, but passed out, her vision painted black.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry if you can't make out the fragments of words.

She didn't dream when she fell asleep against the lighthouse, rain still falling onto her face as her eyesight faded. She thought she was dead. And it worried her a little bit; she didn't know whether or not she wanted to be dead. It was almost accepting by this point.

Because what she experienced certainly took a tole on her mental state. 

When she started to wake, it was bright and sunny, a large contrast to what the day previously was. How long had she been here? Probably longer than a day. Maybe a week. Doesn't matter to her. 

She felt hands gripping onto her clothing, pulling her from her slumber, the voices mumbling something. Actually, no, they were shouting. But despite the shouting Max couldn't make out what they were saying. Her head was foggy and she felt like she was drowning. She never bothered to open her eyes.

_"Ra- There's thi- irl- -ere, and I thi- she-"_

She could only make out a few fragments of words.

_"Chlo- is she al-ve? Whe- -ulse?"_

Was she alive, though? She certainly felt dead. She could  _be_ dead for all she cared. Blue fuzzed over her vision, blurring as it moved, Max could see. She opened her eyes a little wider, causing the people to freeze.

_“Is she o- -ay?”_

_”No, Ch- need- go- h- -pi- -al, now!”_

_”We should ta- -er to my- ome, Rache-“_

Max groaned from her spot on ground, getting picked up by the two people. Soft hair dangled over her cheek and she almost smiled. She could hear the panting as they carried her out in a rush, clothing still a bit soggy from the rain.

But she didn’t care anymore. They were safe.

She felt that she was being lifted by them, and placed hastily into a car. She picked at the torn seats and saw the sun glimmer off of the bobble head that occupied a small part of the hood. 

Max could feel herself being taken into the darkness, her eyelids falling with no warning, and the faint sound of tire wheels screeching against asphalt.

_"Jes-s, she's blee- ing al- -ver the -ruck!"_

* * *

When she woke again, her vision and hearing were much better, no rain, wind or bird songs to put her to sleep. She was wrapped in warm blankets, but no where that seemed like a hospital, unlike what the blonde haired girl had said earlier.

From what she could see, no one was around.

But it was all too familiar, the smell of weed and a messy bed with an American flag hanging from the window. She looks down to see she had made a mess of blood, it dripped from her nose as she lazily got up.

Her head ached.

A lot.

What had she previously done? She couldn’t remember.

A click of a doorknob was heard and she flinched, quickly looking to the bedroom door. A blue-haired girl walked in, a beanie on her head, and a long sleeve tattoo crawling up her right arm.

It took all that she had to not smile and laugh like an idiot while getting up to hug her. 

 “I-I see you’re up,” she says. “I brought pancakes...?” Max doesn’t move. 

“I guess you should get to know me. My n-name is Chlo-“

”Chloe!” The blonde says, opening the door. “Is she- oh. Oops. I see she is." She cleared her throat, walking to Chloe. Pushing her hair behind her left ear, a blue feather earring glistened. Her caring green eyes looked to Max as she introduced herself. She spoke very softly.

"How are you doing? My name's Rachel. And  _this,_ is Chloe" She gestured to her friend. "What's yours?"

"Max."

Max looked down to her folded hands, dirt underneath her fingernails. She sees the blood that she wiped from her nose has been cleaned off. She looks up to Chloe and Rachel, and starts to speak. Just enough so they can hear her.

"Hi, Rachel, Chloe. I'm fine," She pauses. "...May I have the pancakes, though?" Rachel cracks a smile at her faint voice.

"Of course, just, uh, do you know what happened?" She sits down, smile fading. "Why were you passed out against the light house?" She says while handing her the plate of pancakes. 

"I don't know." is all she says. They both look defeated.

While she viciously tore through the pancakes, (the amazing taste of Joyce's two whales cooking,) she spotted a few pictures on the floor of Chloe and Rachel, holding pirate swords and Rachel had worn an eye-patch over her right eye, smiling. She dropped her fork. She knew she had wished for this, but it was heart wrenching.  _She_ wanted to be her childhood friend.  _She_ wanted to go on adventures with her.  _She_ wanted to take over Arcadia Bay as she promised in the previous timeline with  _Chloe._

She tried not to let her happiness fade as she asked: "What's that?" pointing to the pictures.

"Rachel and I. We met when we were kids, and hit it off. I know it's silly, but, we loved to pretend to be pirates."

"Not so silly, I... used to do the same. Used to."

"Haha, well, that's uplifting, knowing I'm not the only one here other than Rach."

Max sighs.  _"It's different,"_ She whispers under her breath.  _"So different."_

"What's that?"

Max just waves her off, shaking her head to Chloe and Rachel. She tries to get up out of their bed, but a horrible pain meets her leg when she does. She throws the covers off of her, to see her leg scratched up and red, previously bleeding it looks like.  _Shit._ She touches it, making it worse.

"What are you doing? Fuckin', you're gonna mess up you're leg even more. You were all cut up when we saw you." Chloe says, stopping her. She flinches at the look of Max's poor scratched up leg.

"And we should have brought you to the hospital, but Chloe wasn't having it." Rachel replies. She works on something on the computer. She falls back in her chair to look back at the two. "Though, it's hella expensive. Oh, that reminds me, wheres your parents?"

Max looks down. "Don't know." She starts to cry. "Don't think I have any anymore."

"What do you mean?"

"I don't even know!" Despite the pain in her leg, she gets up, every part of her body starting to ache. She runs out the door, to the front step, ignoring her name being called. She sits on the step.

The door doesn't open for a while.


	3. Chapter 3

Max cried silently into her hands. She probably shouldn't have run out of the house like that, but she couldn't help it. She needed to be alone right now. Since she woke, Max has been remembering more and more as she cried. Ugly sniffles and cries.

_It was loud, wind howling around her, whipping her hair around her head. Blue, scared eyes looked into hers and a photo was held up. The photo was of a blue butterfly, beautifully perched on top of a school's bathroom bucket._

_"There's only one way to- to..." Chloe stuttered. Her arm dropped a bit, photo becoming splotched because of the rain._

_"No! You're the only thing that matters to me!"_

_She sniffled back. "I know, you've proved that over and over again, but I don't deserve it."_

_Max took the photo from her hand. Her nose ran bloody waterfalls, and her eyes salty tears. Cold rain mixed with warm tears, and as Max spoke, her voice wavered. She looked to the photo, then to Chloe, and spoke so softly she could barely hear herself._

_"Chloe Price, don't you forget about me-" Chloe registered the words Max had spoken. She tried to run towards her, but it was too late._

_"Max! WAIT-!"_

Her head lifted suddenly, her eyes wide. She gasped loudly to herself, her eyes watering. The memory caused another nosebleed, she saw as she looked down. The blood dripped onto the pavement. She looked back to the door which showed two figures, Rachel and Chloe.

In this  _timeline_ , Chloe had no idea who she was.

And Rachel was supposed to be dead.

It was all coming back to her now.

Max's tears stained her cheeks as Rachel put a hand on her shoulder. She bent down to her level, and pushed back some of Max's hair, making her flinch a little bit. A gash was along the right side of her face, now bleeding a little because of the rushed contact from her hands, rubbing at her cheeks repeatedly.

"You're injured. Just- come inside for now, Max," She pulls Max up from the floor. "And maybe you can clarify what you said earlier."

Max nodded.

"You didn't make sense earlier, saying that you... don't have parents?" They walked through the Price household and to the worn couch in the living room. Chloe grabbed a glass of water for the girl, filled with cold ice and tap water. The ice clinked in the cup, swirling in vortexes. Max took the water gratefully. She drank small sips, holding the glass with two hands.

"Yeah."

"So- well- what do you mean?"

"Nothing. Not important." Max was blunt, and she didn't feel like talking very much.

"That's... that's okay. Talk when you're ready." she sighed, restlessly. "Chloe,"

She called to Chloe, wanting her attention. She grabbed at her pale back, and pulled her into the kitchen. They talked behind her hands, glancing to Max every now and then. They groaned to each other. Chloe looked to Max as Rachel was frozen still, hands supporting her as she leaned against the counter. She got up to get the first-aid kit that Max needed much, the blood dripping down her face. She never tried to wipe it away.

"Here, let's get you cleaned up." Rachel said, gesturing for Chloe to follow her.

Chloe started to speak up, now. She hasn't talked to Max for a while, a little spooked by her sudden sprint out of their door. "How are you?"

"I'm okay. Thanks."

She made a noise of understanding. "Cool." She paused, looking to the blue carpeted floor of the living room.

"Max," she said. "Tell us everything."

**Author's Note:**

> i have quite a story here


End file.
